SKODA’s new rally car has been given the green light by the International Automobile Federation.

The new Skoda Fabia R 5 will now fly the flag for the Czech company and carry on a proud 114 year old motorsport tradition.

Based on the production Fabia launched last year, the R 5 is the successor to the Fabia Super 2000, which went down in history as the most successful rally car in the history of Skoda.

The R 5 is the successor to the incredibly successful Super 2000

“When working on the third-generation production Fabia, which enjoyed an extremely successful start, we incorporated some of the genes from our rally cars and developed the most emotive Fabia ever,” said Frank Welsch. of Skoda.

“Conversely, the production model has now formed the basis for the new Fabia R 5.”

The rally car has a 1.6 litre turbo engine with four wheel drive and a five speed sequential gearbox. It weighs at least 1230 kg and has been fine tuned to meet strict FIA regulations.

It has a 1.6 litre turbo engine and a five speed sequential gearbox

The new rally car has already undergone 10,000 kilometres of testing on a wide range of roads and conditions, in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Finland in icy cold or bright sunshine, on asphalt, gravel or snow.

The company are delighted that it has passed the homologation process and say there is already interest in it from customer teams.